Re: Hacking up a sedum??

In a message dated 7/10/00 12:43:20 PM Eastern Daylight Time, 
Lowery@zeonchemicals.com writes:

<< Careful on telling people to cut back sedums and mums.  It really depends
 on their stage of development and where your garden is.  If I cut mine back
 now, I'll be left with no flowers.  My mums are in bud and my 'Autumn Joy's
 flower heads are just now beginning to show a little pink.  I pinched mine
 back in the latter part of May/first week in June.  And this was just
 strategic pinching ala Tracy's book on perennials. >>

I recall the common garden advice was to pinch and pinch again mums until the 
4th of July.  That obviously does not work all around the country.  Tall 
sedums can be shortened in other ways.  You can pull the clump out of the 
ground as it emerges and replant it.  That will give you a shorter, stockier 
plant.  You can divide a clump and replant in sandy, gravelly soil, full sun 
and refrain from fertilizing.  Leaner soil will give you a tighter plant.   
it is probably not a good idea to fertilize tall sedums. Any floppy plant can 
be encircled in a wire cage that you can make yourself.

You buy green poly covered wire fencing with about four inch squares.  You 
cut sections and form into a circle in the size desired.  They are joined 
with the cut open end or twistems or anyway you like.  They are placed over 
plants in the early spring and disappear as the plant grows tall in summer.  
Some salvias and nepetas will flop no matter what you do.  This is easy and 
cheap.

Mums that are not nursery grown for gardeners are shortened with hormonal 
sprays applied throughout the growing season.  Also asters.  If you buy a 
fifteen inch fall aster and it is three feet next year, do not be surprised.  
Plants in flower can also have a fixative sprayed on in the nursery to retain 
their petals.  Easier to keep looking good and easier then to sell.

We do not pinch mums in this cold zone being happy that they survive.

Claire Peplowski
East Nassau, NY z4  

 

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